Word: logicality
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...does not work, of course. But Calvino's narrative of this doomed quest succeeds admirably, in part because he, like Samuel Beckett, recognizes the comic possibilities inherent in the tailspin of logic toward the absurd. Mr. Palomar's relentless speculations render him buffoonish. Passing a woman sunbathing topless on a beach, he averts his eyes lest she cover herself and embarrass them both. On reflection, though, he decides that his behavior was incorrect, since it reinforced outmoded taboos against nudity. So he walks by again, this time taking in the bare breasts as an incidental feature in the general landscape...
...Richard Nixon and Columnist William Safire: limitations on the deployment and, perhaps, testing of defensive systems, though not on research, in return for cuts in the numbers of missiles and warheads. Although Reagan has ruled out using SDI as a bargaining chip, such a deal has an ap-pealing logic: it was the Soviet offensive buildup, after all, that prompted Star Wars in the first place...
Every murder is different in its own way. Each has its own perverse logic, its own cast of mourners, its own sad finality. But a staggering number these days have something in common, something that has become part of a frighteningly familiar but largely unspoken national scourge: the epidemic of violence by young blacks against other young blacks...
What puzzles is Grant's sudden greatness, his rising to the occasion, and the brutality of his greatness, what might be called the bloody abstraction of it. It was as if Grant had rescinded some logic of cause and effect. Lincoln's best generals failed: refulgent characters like George McClellan and "Fighting Joe" Hooker, who would not fight. Grant, the failure, succeeded. Down the years, if anyone has bothered to think about Grant, he has had to wonder whether the man was a genius (his native genius hidden till the crucial moment) or a nonentity who blundered into momentary success...
While some observers thought Assad was reacting to, rather than shaping last week's events, at least one Western diplomat saw a shrewd logic to the Syrian leader's actions. "Each time there is fighting the Syrians allow it to go on for a few days before stepping in and separating the combatants," he said. "And each time this happens, Lebanon seems to become more dependent on Damascus. Perhaps the Syrians are encouraging the fighting to achieve their larger goals...